I Think It's a Show Where Everyone Knits Together…
by NinthFeather
Summary: "We're knitting things for winter," Hibiya said quietly, startling them all. "To wear in winter, after the summer is over." What if Marie was right in the Mekakucity Actors promo and this really will be a show where everyone knits together-at least in between dealing with all the supernatural angst?


_A/N: I have not read the novels, or very much of the manga—my budget's limited and I don't like reading stuff illegally if I can help it, since as a writer and an artist, I feel bad about basically stealing their work. So, I'm working off the songs and the anime promotional videos, and like two chapters of manga. Thus, there may be rampant OOC. This was beta-ed for grammar & spelling only; any continuity errors are mine (and feel free to correct me in non-spoiler-ish ways, as I do plan to watch the show and buy the manga when I have more disposable income.)_

_A separate apology goes out to those who have me on Author Alert and have noticed that this is not my first, not my second, but my _third_ knitting-related fic. I blame the Mekakucity Actors PV with Mary in it, personally._

I Think It's a Show Where Everyone Knits Together…

Kisaragi Shintarou hadn't really known what to expect after getting another message from Kido about a Mekakushi-dan meeting. He still wasn't sure what he thought about the group, especially the fact that his little sister seemed to have gotten involved in it. Was it really okay for his innocent, clumsy sister to run around with a group led by a boyish-looking girl whose friends called her _danshou, _gang leader? But she hadn't managed to get hurt yet…and wasn't it somewhat his fault, that he'd been too busy on the internet to make sure his little sister didn't become a _yanki_?

Either way, his feelings about all of this were still kind of mixed, and he couldn't help but be a bit apprehensive as he approached the front door of the house he'd first seen after that disaster of a robbery.

Ene was babbling through his headphones, something about going to the amusement park again—geez, did she really think it was that fun?—and that, at least, kept him from getting too nervous as he knocked on the door.

To his surprise, it was Seto who opened it. Normally, Momo or Kido answered the door.

"Great, you're here!" the boy exclaimed, ushering him in.

"So, what's this all about?" Shintarou asked.

"_Danshou _and Marie planned an activity for today," Seto said, gesturing for Shintarou to follow him down the hallway.

"An activity?" Shintarou asked dubiously. That was…disturbingly vague. They could literally be doing anything…seriously, he might need to get Momo away from these people.

"I can't say it's my favorite thing, but I get why they wanted to do it," Seto said, shrugging as he walked into the main room, where the others were gathered.

_Seriously, what—_

Then he saw what was going on in the room and broke off mid-thought. "What the—" he managed.

"What's going on?" Ene demanded. "Let me see!"

Mechanically, Shintarou pulled out his music player, and held it out so that Ene could "see" the room with the device's camera.

"They're _knitting!_" Ene exclaimed, loudly enough to make Shintarou wince.

"Yeah," Shintarou replied, absently.

On the largest couch Kido, somehow managing to make the two blue metal sticks in her hands look like weapons, even though there was about a meter of violet fabric hanging down from them.

She spared Shintarou a look.

"Have you ever knitted before?" she asked.

Shintarou shook his head, a bit overwhelmed.

"Marie will teach you," she said, gesturing toward the white-haired girl, who was currently holding a pair of skinny needles with about a yard of elaborate lace hanging from them. "She's helping Seto too."

Shintarou glanced at Seto, who blushed.

"Number 0 taught us a while back, but it seems like I've forgotten everything," he said.

Shintarou wondered if he'd really forgotten, or if he just wanted an excuse to talk with Marie. And who was this Number 0 person they kept mentioning? He really needed to ask them about that one of these days.

"Ooh, can I learn too?" Ene asked.

Shintarou unplugged the headphones and turned up the volume for Ene. "Can I? Can I learn knitting?"

"Ah, Ene-san, that is, how will you do it without hands?" Marie stammered.

"Well, can I watch?" Ene asked.

"O-of course!" Marie said quickly.

"Isn't this a bit of a weird activity for, um, a group like you guys?" Shintarou ventured.

"We're knitting things for winter," Hibiya said quietly, startling them all. "To wear in winter, after the summer is over."

He was sitting on the floor near the window, looking up from what appeared to be a hat with surly, almost defensive expression on his face.

_Oh_, Shintarou thought, recalling what Kido and Momo had told him about how Hibiya had gotten his eye ability. Poor kid probably didn't even know how many times he'd lived and relived those two days in August. Winter had probably felt like a distant dream. If this made him feel better…well, Shintarou, who had spent years burying his pain in the internet, could hardly judge him.

"It's practical," Kido added.

"Number 0 did it all the time," Seto put in. "She made a really pretty red scarf once…" he trailed off, clearly nostalgic.

_A red scarf…_Shintarou swallowed and tried to keep Ayano's sadly smiling face out of his mind.

Who had he been kidding when he started coming to these meetings? Or, for that matter, leaving the house again at all? He should've figured out by now that he wasn't ready to deal with the outside world. Someone mentioned a scarf and he felt like crying, for heaven's sake! Ayano would say he was being ridiculous. Ayano would—

"You know, the world isn't always that easy to deal with for the rest of us, either," Seto said.

Shintarou turned to him, wide-eyed. "Did you—"

"You're a little paranoid, you know that, right?" Seto asked. "I only need normal eyes to tell what you're thinking. It's all on your face."

Shintarou felt his cheeks heat slightly.

"Seriously, you're like a book," Seto giggled. "But, like I said, we've all run away once or twice in our lives. But there are other things you can do besides just hiding."

"Other things?" Shintarou ventured.

"Knitting is very relaxing," Konoha said suddenly, looking up from a wide, thick strip of white hanging from twin wooden sticks, his hands flicking the needles back and forth quickly enough for Shintarou's eyes to have difficulty tracking them.

"What he said," Seto said. "Or you could figure out something else." He shrugged.

"Are you okay, big brother?" Momo called from across the room.

She was kneeling on the floor with Hibiya, holding the needles differently from everyone else, her yarn in a tangled mess on her lap. Her knitting looked more like a collection of holes than a piece of fabric.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" Shintarou asked.

Momo looked down at her knitting. "Aah! It's full of holes! Marie-_chan_, I think I need another lesson!"

Hibiya seemed close to smiling in amusement at her panic.

"Don't worry, I can help all three of you," Marie said, a bit timidly.

"Marie's a good teacher," Kano put in, from his perch on the edge of the couch's arm. Shintarou couldn't quite tell what the item he was knitting was intended to be, although it was a nice shade of green.

He thought about that for a second, then asked Seto, "Is he actually knitting or is he just making us think he is?"

Seto shrugged.

"Let's start, let's start!" Ene piped up.

"Here," Marie said, handing Shintarou a pair of red steel knitting needles and a large, fluffy ball of white yarn.

Shintarou sighed and accepted them.

"Oh, don't act like this offends your masculine pride," Ene huffed. "You lost that a while ago."

"Probably around the same time a crazy chick started living in my computer," Shintarou muttered.

He was expecting to get glared at by Ene. Momo's glare was a bit more unexpected.

"Be nice, big brother!" she snapped.

Shintarou just sighed again and turned back to Marie.

"O-okay," Marie started, blushing, her eyes turned down toward her lap as she picked up her needles. "This is how you cast on…"


End file.
